The judge, who refused to be named, also said that those who help others to carry out acts of self-immolation are inhuman and should be punished by law. Apart from Sichuan, a number of incidents have also occurred in the neighboring provinces of Qinghai and Gansu, which both have sizable populations of ethnic Tibetans.

Self-immolation is not an isolated, personal act. It can also affect other people, said Han Xueshun, a police officer at the public security bureau in Aba prefecture. "When they have set themselves on fire, they run into the crowds. In one case, a large number of school children were left traumatized after seeing such an act on their way home from school," he said.

"I've never seen a self-immolation myself. I only began to hear about this act last year and even the thought of it makes me feel very disturbed," said the owner of a grocery store on Qiatangxi street, who would only give his name as Wen.

The bustling street, which is usually packed with vendors selling yak meat and the wormwood used by Tibetans during exorcisms, will have few visitors in the wake of incidents such as this, he said. "People are scared to come to the street for three to four days afterwards, so there is much less business for me," said Wen, who has run the small business for around 30 years.

People used to gather and watch the acts of self-immolation, but now the act has been disguised, said Ngarnang, director of Aba county's information office. "We have seen a trend whereby the location of these acts has moved from the county seat to the countryside, because it is less public. After all, the Dalai Lama and his followers just need the photographs and videos to use in their propaganda campaign. They know they won't get any support from the local people."

"Saving their lives is the only thing we think about when we see people set themselves on fire," said Karang Phuntsog, a traffic police officer who helped to extinguish the flames when Lorang Tsedrup, a young monk from Kirti Monastery, burned himself on March 16. "We transported him to the county hospital within five minutes."

Later, Lorang Konchok, another monk from Kirti, confessed that he was behind the 23-year-old's death. In his confession, the 40-year-old said Lorang Tsedrup had been his friend and respected him greatly. Using that respect as a lever, the older man encouraged the young monk to self-immolate and promised to send the news on to India, so Lorang Tsedrup and his family would be honored.

Lorang Konchok took advantage of his position as a Geshe, a name given to monks who hold an exclusive degree in Buddhist studies. He told local monks and followers that self-immolation was not against Buddhist doctrine and that those who performed the act were "heroes".

However, he admitted that he had no intention of becoming a "hero" himself. "I won't self-immolate because I am scared of the pain," said Lorang Konchok at the detention center in Aba prefecture in early December. "I didn't regard them (self-immolators) as heroes until two other monks, Samdam and Dorah, told me so. They also told me they could help publicize those who set themselves on fire."

Samdam and Dorah were once monks at Kirti Monastery in Aba county. Dorah, who was later smuggled to Dharamsala, India, where the Dalai Lama set up his exiled "government", now works as a housekeeper for the Living Buddha of Kirti, who fled to India with the Dalai Lama in 1959.